I've considered using one many many times. Points are cheap and time is expensive. Searching for flights can be a PITA and requires esoteric knowledge

I've seen the service offer when looking at that FT member's site that links from his trip reports. I'm just surprised that the many other travel bloggers here don't offer it as well. It's no different from Coupon Connection service.
I've been tempted to try it out - we all know how challenging it can be to find 3 LH F tickets in both directions using United miles! Only thing stopping me is that I can waste hours looking for redemption but mostly that I'm not interested in intl travel at the moment.

What exactly is the issue here? These people have knowledge that their customers do not. Their customers could spend countless hours trying to learn how to navigate complex waters. So these people offer to put their expertise to work for their customers for a fee that provides value relative to the customers having to do it themselves. That pretty much describes any consulting role. I am a consultant by trade (not for award booking), and bill far more than that for an hourly rate. Expert advice is good business.

I'd use that service.

Many do. This is not an isolated offering from one or two people. :confused:

And $150 is far from the highest price you'll pay for such service. OMAAT starts at $200 and VFTW can double that:

I wouldn't pay someone to book my award travel. It's not because I wouldn't trade $150 for the countless hours it takes to find the perfect award ticket, but because each of us have our own crazy preferences when it comes to this sort of thing and I have no confidence that someone else would find exactly what I'd want.

Note that the major services employ people to do the real searching or booking. Don't expect a well known blogger to actually do the work to plan your trip. Also, these folks might not be especially knowledgable about your FF program.

Some people pay others to clean their house, or tend their garden. What is your point?

the point is that I wanted to share a video that I thought many of you would enjoy.

has this place changed recently? used to be a pleasant place for me to share FF, transit, and tourism stuff but recently way too much of my interaction is negative.

Post-election malaise. Don't worry about it.

You've been around on FT for a while and didn't now this service existed, and I'm sure others are in the same boat. Personally, I'd seriously consider it, depending on the details. It's actually not a bad idea to post it here where other FTers (newbies or long-time posters like yourself) who weren't aware such services existed will know now.

I've used one and it saved me a lot of time. They found first class seats from North America to Australia/return from NZ that I would not have found on my own.

I was able to specify all my quirky preferences upfront and didn't have to pay until they found an itinerary that was acceptable.

That was three years ago. I imagine the field is more crowded now.

Yes, I can confirm that people are willing to pay for an award booking service.:)

There are dozens of award booking services out there incl. myself and a few other FTers. Some are better than others...most are travel bloggers, a few just turned their knowledge into a (side) business and a few are travel consultants who also operate an award booking service.

There's a fairly comprehensive list here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

IME there are three main group of clients:

1) people who lack the knowledge / experience to find availability themselves
2) savvy FFers / FTers who could do it themselves, but who value their time (even for a very experienced FTer, finding award availability for a complex trip can take several hours)
3) FFers / FTers who are quite knowledge (at least when it comes to their primary FFP), but see value in having someone else optimize their award (e.g. finding the most cost-effecient way for a trip with five stopovers etc.)

I offered this as a service for a short time. Ultimately I decided that doing it properly—putting in the same amount of research in planning I do for my own award travel—just made it unprofitable. Even if I could charge $500 per ticket, my hourly rate would be way too low. Since I can get at least $100/hour with my primary skillset (software development), even at that price point spending more than five hours on a ticket would be a losing proposition compared to picking up a small software contract.

Moderator Note: Please continue the discussion in the Travel Tools forum. Thanks.

Here's an ongoing thread about Award Bookers:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

I would only pay if the award booking service can FORCE inventory.